Cisco Breakdown – MN Tourney Beatdown – Big Fish Pics!
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Tourney News
A couple big musky tournaments happened this week – here's a quick recap:
#1 – First, we have the event on Leech Lake (Aug. 16-17) put on by the Minnesota Muskie Trail. A strong group of musky-heads fished this event, and no surprise, there were some big MN muskies caught!
Here's a look at the 4-pack of 'skies that made Brad Swenson & Nate Buth $9,000 richer this past weekend:
They had an A+ start to the event, boating ALL four of their muskies by 10:30am on the first day. It had to feel good putting a flurry of 'skies on the scoreboard before most teams had caught a musky!
And the coolest thing about Brad and Nate's win.... They didn't even know each other before the event! The full story is at at 11:20 in this video 👀
And here's the BIG fish of the derby from Jace Loge & Darian Rubner, who eventually took second place overall in the event:
Btw, here's a look at the final standings if you were curious:
Okay, now lets head 6-ish hours east....
#2 – The next tourney we wanted to highlight was the National Championship Musky Open in Eagle River, WI.
First, I gotta say, this looks like a really fun event. It's family-friendly and attracts a MASSIVE field of folks. They pulled a whopping 1,129 musky anglers this year, hailing from 16 different states.
The winner, with 144 total inches (four fish at 34.5, 36, 36.5 and 37 inches), was 15 year old Forrest Grassel. Here's a photo of Forrest hoisting his hardware:
They also had a "Lucky Ticket" award.... essentially a random drawing for a brand new Recon boat, paired with a 115-horsepower Mercury.
Pete LaBorde won the free boat, despite not catching any 'skies. #goldenticket
Gotta love his quote after the event:
"I’ll take a boat over catching a fish any day!"
Can't argue with that! 😆
#3 – Super quickly, here's a couple derbies we're looking forward to in the very, very near future:
First, the Frank Schneider Memorial Muskie Tournament is happening Sept. 6-8th. You can register anytime between now and Labor Day.
And last up, the PMTT on Lake Minnetonka is happening this weekend!
The Cisco Kid!
I was listening to the "Doc Talks" podcast recently, hosted by Musky Insider PRO instructor Gord Pyzer and his grandson Liam Whetter.
They were interviewing Dr. Chris Therrien (AKA: the Cisco Kid)
Therrien has spent a lot of time studying ciscos (or tullibee/lake herring if you prefer 😉), and that as the topic of discussion in this episode.
A few interesting nuggets from the chat:
First, they talked about how there have been 8 different species of cisco in the province of Ontario over the years. The most common is the Coregonus artedi.
Three of the 8 are extinct, but here's a photo we found on Michigan State University's website of the five surviving cisco types:
What's great about cisco is they support populations of predator fish in some of our favorite lakes, including big plus-sized muskies. Therrien even called them "Hamburgers with Fins", which is an amazing nickname... 😂
You should listen to the podcast, but I'll leave ya with one more interesting tidbit from Dr. Chris Therrien before we move on. Here's his explanation on why you will often find cisco relating to the thermocline:
"The exact thermocline is the area where there's the most rapid change in temperature per unit distance going down. The thermocline is typically between 10-15 degrees Celsius, so 50-59 degrees Fahrenheit.
"Why do cisco hang out at the thermocline? Well, there's a number of reasons for that. It seems that when you take cisco and put them into a lab and expose them to a number of different temperatures, their preferred optimum is between 12 to 16 degrees Celsius, which coincides exactly with the thermocline.
"Why is this their optimum? How did they evolve to do this? One of their preferred prey items is plankton, specifically zooplankton. Generally, they like daphnia, cladocerans, Mysis shrimp. And they tend to feed at the thermocline, because what they eat – the smaller diatoms, some of the phytoplankton – they sink and hit a wall of denser water, so their sinking slows. Same with all the carbon that the phytoplankton uses to produce energy.... that also sinks until it settles at the thermocline. There's a lot of food there and the ciscos have evolved to sit there and eat the food.
"They also have access to deepwater refuge, so they can get away from predators like musky above them."
Great stuff! You can click here to listen to the full interview 👈
Musky Memein' Time!
Alright, here's a few musky memes we whipped up for your entertainment this week.
Okay, let's warm up with some grumpy cat memery:
Could have gone a number of different ways with this next meme, but decided to go financial. The price of musky gear was "inflation adjusted" before we even had inflation.... 😅
You know the type.... #release2thegrease
100% do NOT send this next meme to your diehard bass fishin' buddies. 🙃
This Week's Mashup:
Mashup time!
#1 – Snapped this picture on a recent road trip. Can you name what town this musky statue calls home??
#2 – Check out these "Mr. Automatic" gliders that Ezoko has in stock. They are made of white oak, run 1-2 feet below the surface, and are hand-tuned one-by-one. Worth a look if you're in the market for a new glider:
#3 – Diggin' this 'skie art from Drew Wilson (@drewlr):
#4 – Not sure if Brett Mauler was going for the "Tarpon Pose" on this water release shot, but he absolutely nailed it!
QUICK HITTERS:
– Jeremy Smith talks fishing rocks for 'skies (video)
– August musky fishing action w/ Todays Angler (video)
– Summer musky tips w/ John & Ashley Holmgren (video)
– Topwater musky chasin' w/ Smith's Fishing (video)
– Gus Mantley on the Musky Road Rules Podcast (video)
– Joe Bucher's thoughts on musky leaders (video)
This Week's Monster Muskies:
Absolutely love this pic. Big congrats to Gerald on popping this big, healthy 57 incher fishing on the French River over at the Lunge Lodge. #beast
Flawless musky photo posted by Pete Maina. Big congrats to Anna on catching this beauty of a low-light 'skie 💪
Congrats to Jon Hochman on poppin' this porky summertime 'skie up on Lake of the Woods. As he said, "Great way to end the summer vacation." 🔥
Beautiful 39 inch tiger musky caught near Hayward, WI, sent in by Jason Tande:
Wanna be featured in Musky Insider? Send in your recent trophy musky photos by replying to this email. You might just see your pic in next week's newsletter. 🤙
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